La Belle
by Vio Lenz
Summary: SasuSaku ... R&R please.


The poem does and does not fit ... La Belle Dame sans Merci translates to the nice merciless lady, and I didn't write Sakura like tat ... But Sasuke feels like he doesn't deserve mercy. So like I said ... if does and doesn't fit.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of Kishimoto's work.

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_O WHAT can ail thee, knight-at-arms,_

_Alone and palely loitering?_

_The sedge has wither'd from the lake,_

_And no birds sing_.

Sasuke felt himself dieing. His battered body lay next to a large lake. He had been a fool to leave Konoha. This power wasn't worth the pain.

_O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms!_

_So haggard and so woe-begone?_

_The squirrel's granary is full,_

_And the harvest's done._

The world would continue on without him there to destroy it. Those were his thoughts in his last moments. It was still here and it was calming.

_I see a lily on thy brow_

_With anguish moist and fever dew,_

_And on thy cheeks a fading rose_

_Fast withereth too._

The cherry blossom's fell from the tree above him. Their sweet fragrance swarmed around him full of memories and pain. The petal's falling on his forehead and cheeks.

_I met a lady in the meads,_

_Full beautiful—a faery's child,_

_Her hair was long, her foot was light,_

_And her eyes were wild._

Suddenly the vision of her filled his eyesight. He rubbed his eyes and looked again, and realized that it wasn't his mind playing tricks on him. Before him stood Sakura wearing a light cotton dress. Her long pink tresses falling around her should hers. Her jade colored eyes staring at him.

"_Sakura_."

_I made a garland for her head,_

_And bracelets too, and fragrant zone;_

_She look'd at me as she did love,_

_And made sweet moan._

She was lovely as she sat before him and started to twist flowers with her small hands into something beautiful. She placed the garland on her head and smiled at him. He pulled her close and pressed his lips to hers. She let out a soft moan.

"You came back." She whispered.

"Yes." Was his only reply before he kissed her again.

_I set her on my pacing steed,_

_And nothing else saw all day long,_

_For sidelong would she bend, and sing_

_A faery's song._

They sat there for a while, she in his arms. He felt like a changed man. He wanted to take her and go far away. Just them, together, like she had always promised him. Sakura was humming a light melody that reminded him of the wind and he relaxed at its soft tones.

_She found me roots of relish sweet,_

_And honey wild, and manna dew,_

_And sure in language strange she said—_

"_I love thee true."_

"I still love you Sasuke." She told him. The words sounded foreign to him.He hadn't heard them in a long while. Her small body turned to face him. He bent and kissed her once more.

"You kept your promise." He remembered.

_She took me to her elfin grot,_

_And there she wept, and sigh'd fill sore,_

_And there I shut her wild wild eyes_

_With kisses four._

Sakura's eyes filled with tears. Sasuke kissed them away and pulled her close.

"Take me home." He whispered into her hair. Sakura stood and took his hand and lead him away from the hauntingly quiet lake and into the city. Faces stared and people whispered. Sakura just lead him on, through the city and to his former home, now covered in dust.

_And there she lulled me asleep,_

_And there I dream'd—Ah! woe betide!_

_The latest dream I ever dream'd_

_On the cold hill's side._

The memories flooded back and the pain remained. The pain that had torn through his heart the night when his parents were killed. When his family was massacred. She held him as he wept himself to sleep there in the entry way.

_I saw pale kings and princes too,_

_Pale warriors, death-pale were they all;_

_They cried—"La Belle Dame sans Merci_

_Hath thee in thrall!"_

He saw them there. His mother, his father. Itachi. All of them dead and all of them were haunting him.

"Please forgive me!" He cried to the ghosts of his past.

_I saw their starved lips in the gloam,_

_With horrid warning gaped wide,_

_And I awoke and found me here,_

_On the cold hill's side._

"There's nothing to forgive." His father told him hauntingly.

"I'm sorry little brother." His brother whispered with sadness.

"Wake up Sasuke. Be with your young lady. She'll help you find salvation." His mother told him as they're figures faded. Sasuke jerked awake in Sakura's arms. His home now dark.

_And this is why I sojourn here,_

_Alone and palely loitering,_

_Though the sedge is wither'd from the lake,_

_And no birds sing._

It was quiet as he cried in her arms, begging for forgiveness. She wiped the tears away and kissed his cheeks.

"There's nothing to forgive." She told him lovingly. The same words he heard his father had used. She smoothed his hair and smiled at him. And within that moment he realized that he had found redemption and life renewed.

"I love you." He was finally able to say. The cold ice that once surrounded his heart melting away.

"I know." Were her only words as she held him close. Yes, Sasuke was forgiven for his evil deeds and his soul felt lighter than it had been in years. He was home.


End file.
